Triad Chapter – Greensboro Arboretum Butterfly Walk – July 10, 2016

Twenty-four of us (a great turnout!) took a butterfly walk in the Greensboro Arboretum on Sunday afternoon, July 10. This was a joint outing with the T. Gilbert Pearson Audubon Society of Guilford County. We had moderate success finding butterflies for this time of year, and everyone seemed to have a good time. The weather was quite cooperative with temperature in the upper 80s and a sunny sky with a light breeze.

Butterflies have been a bit scarce in the Triad lately, presumably because the recent dry weather may have caused plants to stop producing nectar. Recent rain seems to have turned that around. We were successful in finding eleven species of butterflies, including three Monarch butterflies, at least one of which was a female. We searched through many milkweed plants along the creek but didn’t find any caterpillars. Maybe she’s laying eggs now and we’ll find caterpillars in a week to 10 days.

We were able to find Pawpaw trees, the host plant for Zebra Swallowtail butterflies, that had fruit on them, a first for many folks. Unfortunately, that particular species of butterfly was a no-show, however. One of the nicest sightings was a very fresh and colorful Red Admiral butterfly sipping nectar from Purple Coneflower. See the attached photo.